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Stories from the Verse
In Verse Proportion
Chapter 90: Kondor 204
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Slade 197
Kondor awoke lying on a comfortable mattress, but stripped to his boxer shorts and exposed to the world otherwise. Struggling to recall, he had a vague memory of Zeke and Leah undressing him. He was still not well from the dehydration, and the climb to their rooms had apparently been a bit much for him.
The room was not hot, but somehow he suspected that was because it was still early. Leah was curled on the bed beside him, apparently exhausted. He saw a bowl of water and a slightly damp washcloth on an ottoman next to the bed, and concluded that she must have bathed him to cool him after she had undressed him. He decided not to disturb her.
He considered donning his camos, but realized that they would be pretty dirty from the trip. His luggage had been delivered, so he thought his thobe would be the garment of choice. He stood, and immediately sat, apparently still a bit debilitated from yesterday.
“Are you all right?” Leah mumbled.
“I think so,” he answered. “Go back to sleep.”
She might have complied; in any case, she did not say anything else. He took a deep breath, and finding his legs stood. Carefully he walked over to his suitcase, duffel, and backpack, and tried to recall where he had packed the robe in which he had been wed. He found it easily enough, and donned it.
Then he looked around at the room. It showed signs of having been recently redecorated, apparently changed from the room of a teenaged girl to that of a newlywed couple. There was a touch of opulence to it, but also a level of practicality. It had two tables, what Kondor took to be dressing tables, and since one was provisioned with what appeared to be cosmetic products of a sort and the other was bare, he took it that the bare one was intended for his use. He was not at all certain what he would put on it, or how he would use it, but there was an ottoman by it which he took to be his chair. He sat in it.
It struck him that he had no idea where he was. That is, he was obviously in their shared bedroom in what would be regarded their wing of the palace, but he was not certain quite how he got here and would not have been able to retrace his steps. Last night it had already been dark by the time they brought him here, and the lamps provided minimal light, and he had not been well, so they had supported and guided him on the trip from the dining hall to the bedroom. A return trip would be at best wandering around the castle and hoping he found something he recognized, which would be limited to the front door and the dining room, and maybe the hall between the two. There were too many ways he could wander into the wrong place. Waiting was the best plan currently.
There was a knock from the door, and then Zeke’s voice. “Everybody decent?” he called.
Leah was dressed in bed clothes, and Kondor thought she probably would prefer not to be seen by another man in them. “Hang a minute,” he said, and pulled up a sheet from his side of the bed which he draped over her. “O.K., now we’re good.”
Zeke entered. “Still sleeping, is she?” he said. “Not surprised. She didn’t look like she was going to sleep much when I left her here last night.”
“She did manage to change for bed,” Kondor said. “But I have only vague memories of last night. Any idea what time it is?”
“I suspect it’s near breakfast time.”
“Do you think we should wake her?”
Zeke grinned. “She’s your wife. What do you think? Would she rather sleep or eat?”
This was certainly a question, but it wasn’t the only question. Tied to it were questions like, should he skip breakfast? Should he make an appearance and meet the household this morning without her? Deciding that the answer to those questions was no, it suddenly didn’t matter which she would choose.
He thought that might be a bit selfish of him, but then, he couldn’t think of another solution.
“I’ll wake her. Do you think there will be a gong or something?”
“Probably not. It’s usually been that breakfast is served and people who are up in time get to eat. Should I wait for you?”
“Can you find your way without us?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Good. Save us space somewhere, we’ll join you.”
As Zeke departed, Kondor turned his attention to Leah’s luggage, looking for her thobe. “Good morning, beautiful,” he said as he did. “I think we should probably make an appearance at breakfast. People are going to want to see this foreign nobleman you’ve brought into the family.”
She rolled toward him and propped herself up on one elbow.
“How are you?” she asked.
“Better, I think. I definitely need to get some fruit juice, though. You?”
“Tired. But I’ll manage. Why am I covered?”
“Zeke popped over to see whether we were awake. I was, but I didn’t think you’d want him ogling you in your nightdress.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
“Hey, you matter.”
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for your thobe. I thought they would be a good choice for our first real appearance here, so I’m wearing mine.”
Again she nodded. “I think it’s hanging over there;” she pointed to a rack by the window. “Zil put away some of my things.”
Kondor turned his attention to the rack. “And who is Zil?” he asked.
“Oh, Zilpah has been my handmaid for--well, probably since I was ten, but she stayed here while I was at the Caliph’s place.”
Should it bother him that his wife had her own personal servant, which in this world probably meant a slave? Well, this was not the moment to worry about that.
“Here it is,” he said, pulling it off a rack. She nodded, rose, and shed her nightclothes. He was looking at her, and swallowed. “You know, I could easily be persuaded to skip breakfast.”
She smiled radiantly, but said, “Health comes first. Let’s get some liquid into you so you don’t relapse, and then, well, I have no plans for this morning.”
Kondor liked the sound of that.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #448: Inventive Versers. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
